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Soon, Everyone Will Be Able to Get the Morning-After Pill Without a Prescription

Until now, anyone 16 and under has needed a prescription to get access to the morning-after pill, and women 17 and over have been able to get it only after showing a government-issued I.D. to a pharmacist.

But today, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make "morning-after" emergency contraception pills available without a prescription to all girls of reproductive age. The judge ordered the FDA to lift all age and sale restrictions on the morning-after pill within the next 30 days. That means that Plan B will soon be on open shelves in supermarkets, convenience stores, and pharmacies, for anyone to buy.

This decision is a big deal. As you know, it's always been a controversial topic, and the answer as to who should have access to this pill (and under what circumstances) has been debated back and forth for years. Experts from organizations such as the American Medical Association, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Pediatrics have long held that giving universal access to the pill would be a good thing—for some girls under 16, they would rather do anything than talk to their parents, go to their doctors, and get prescriptions for the pills; and that could mean unwanted pregnancies (which, ultimately, have more safety risks than the morning-after pill).

The federal judge who ordered the restrictions lifted, Edward R. Korman of the Federal District Court, said the federal government had acted in "bad faith" in dealing with the requests to make the pill available to everyone and also said its actions had been politically motivated.

And for many people and organizations—like the Physicians for Reproductive Health, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and others—celebration is in order. Now, they say, women of any age and situation (without government I.D., victims of sexual assault, younger adolescents) will have access to necessary emergency contraception. But, of course, there are others who aren't so thrilled; the president of Pharmacists for Life, for example, said: "When these are right out there with the bubble gum, they're going to be part of the date-rape cocktail."